“Liza is a pleasure to work with. She creates interactive and fun wine experiences that are enjoyable for everyone. She really knows her wine and you can just tell how much she loves sharing her passion with all kinds of groups.”

- Carissa Zenorini
Principal; Absolute Adventures, Inc. (event planner),
San Jose, California

“Liza’s years of writing about the wine business gives her ready access to experts across the industry. In her seminar at Sonoma State, her first-hand knowledge and experience was complemented by first-class panel of colleagues,”

- Ray Johnson
Director,
Sonoma State University Wine Business Institute

“I’ve worked with Liza for nearly a decade and have always been impressed by her passionate knowledge of wine and spirits. Over the years, she’s helped me craft brand and corporate messaging that truly resonates with trade and consumers. Working with an experienced journalist is an asset for any communications professional and I’ve found my relationship with Liza to be invaluable,”

- Holly Evans
Director of Communications,
PURPLE WINE + SPIRITS, Graton, California

“Liza is unmatched for her enthusiasm and pursuit of knowledge, all while retaining charm and humor while bringing it to her audiences. I always enjoy her ability to challenge me,”

- Todd Smith
Wine Director and Manager,
DOSA South Indian Restaurants, San Francisco, California

“Liza is one of our most trusted writers. Her professionalism, expertise, and ability to meet tight deadlines make her a go-to choice when assigning stories on the wine and spirits business,”

- David Gadd
Vice President and Executive Editor,
The Tasting Panel and The SOMM Journal, Encino, California

“Liza’s creative, approachable style captivates her audience in an engaging, immersive experience. She is a unique wine educator in terms of her professionalism and ability to stay at the top of the game while demonstrating her vast knowledge of the wine, food and spirits. She is truly the quintessential Wine Chick who has the innate ability to evangelize any brand she promotes,”

- Beth Schnitzer
Beth Schnitzer; Co-Founder and President,
Spritz, San Francisco

“We had a great night! Liza’s events are a true delight. Her knowledge about wine is jaw dropping. She knows how to educate about wine in a playful way. The experience was excellent!”

- Hermine Baker
Owner,
Atmani Wine Country Tours

“As an Italian I have a passion for wine. I found the same passion in Liza, her knowledge and enthusiasm for sharing so much information and so many details about wine made her the center of the party!”

- Federico Brocero Ghersi
Realtor,
Alain Pinel Realtors, San Francisco, California

“Liza has a sharp take on the modern wine industry, offering insights and recommendations that stand out from the crowd. Her writing is informative and enjoyable to read, and hopefully opens you up to something new in the wine world,”

- Max DeNike
Managing Editor,
The San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, California

“What an elixir! I sort of know one is not supposed to enjoy one’s own publicity but I couldn’t help enjoying how well you write even if it was about my firm and myself.”

- David Rockwell
CEO;
Rockwell Group (restaurant architects),
New York City

“Liza’s ‘How to be Wine Savvy in Business’ was a big hit with our alumni. Liza’s warmth and natural ability to pique her students’ curiosity ensured that everyone went home learning a lot. We tasted some great wines, answered all our burning wine questions and had tons of fun. Liza took care of all the details making sure the whole night ran smoothly,”

- Anna Kharbas
San Francisco Regional President,
Cornell Alumni Association of Northern California

“I was very impressed with the depth of knowledge and expertise you so eloquently shared with our attendees. You did a great job balancing a very knowledgeable group of wine enthusiasts. I would highly recommend your services to anyone.”

- Renee Feeney
Business Development Manager,
Fireman’s Fund Insurance Co., Arizona

Services

Consumer Services

Tailored Seminars

Tailored Seminars

Wine events for groups of different professional backgrounds (tech, banking etc.), levels of wine knowledge and demographics (such as women’s groups, gay groups).

Dynamic Team Building Events

Dynamic Team Building Events

Interactive wine tasting and competitive events appropriate for groups of 10 to 300, which can include seminars, interactive wine tasting activities-such as comparing styles of oak and tasting blind—and wine battles based on Iron Chef.

Event Planning Services

Event Planning Services

Assistance with finding the right venue, caterers, stemware and negociating it all as an insider on your client’s behalf.

Wine and Food Pairing Seminars and Consulting

Wine and Food Pairing Seminars and Consulting

Sugar and salt, how do they affect the flavor of wine? How can you cook differently to make your dishes work better with wine by using judicious quantities of seasonings? These seminars also cover hints for dining out in terms of both food and wine pairings.

Access to Top Wine Country and Culinary Personalities

Access to Top Wine Country and Culinary Personalities

Want to visit wineries closed to the public, eat dinner and tour the cellar at a winemaker’s house or taste vintages no longer commercially available on the market? Let a career journalist open the door to experiences that your clients will talk about for years to come.

Wine Tourism and Tastings Off the Beaten Path

Wine Tourism Trips and Tastings off the Beaten Path

Let me help in securing tastings at lesser-known wineries, give you access to older vintages, combine them with unique food excursions and give your group the benefit of tasting in private rooms and staying at winery properties not open to the public.

Women and Wine Seminars

Women and Wine Seminars

Women-only weekends, bridal celebrations and educational programs for any occasion or when spouses are focused on other activities. These can cover great wines made by women winemakers and can include wine-based spa and beauty treatments, elaborate meals and unique sports and hiking activities.

Wine Etiquette for Corporate Executives and Planners

Wine Etiquette for Corporate Executives and Planners

Ask anything and everything you ever wanted to know about wine purchasing, ordering, storage and service. Learn how to choose the perfect wines for corporate gatherings, buy within your price point and serve wines at their ideal temperature and point of drinkability.

Competitions for Consumer and Trade Tastings and Networking Events

Competitions for Consumer and Trade Tastings and Networking Events

Take on your friends and clients like an Iron Chef. Compete at regional, varietal and pairing challenges to win stars for your wine knowledge and a prize. Your guests will love the playfully competitive format.

Liza the Wine Chick is a font of new and exciting ideas that inspire everyone from corporate planners to consumers. Her dynamic formats include educational seminars and boot camps, interactive food and wine pairings and blind tasting competitions and tailored wine- and cocktail-themed sessions for team building, parties and private and corporate festive gatherings.



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Trade Services

Academic Programs for Wine and Culinary Schools

Academic Programs for Wine and Culinary Schools

Region-, varietal-, style-, trend- and portfolio-specific courses to take wine and food schools and academic institutions to the next level.

Staff Training for Hotels, Bars and restaurants

Staff Training for Hotels, Bars and restaurants

From trends to standards in customer service, bring in an expert to reinforce best practices and get your staff up-to-date and re-energized.

Courses on Different Wine Regions, Styles and History

Courses on Different Wine Regions, Styles and History

For wine schools, restaurants and bars, importers, brands and more.

Pairing Courses for Restaurant Wait Staff

Pairing Courses for Restaurant Wait Staff

Wait staff and chefs can always benefit from training, whether it is tableside with clients, in the kitchen or in your meetings to optimize sales. Zimmerman will get your staff focused on key food and wine trends, new service standards and pairing synergies to help your operation pump up sales.

Tactical Brand Building Support

Strategic Brand Building Support

Zimmerman can help your team strategically fine-tune sales pitches and marketing materials across spirits and wine categories with key insights on trends, data and what is relevant to consumers.

Targeted Portfolio Tastings

Targeted Portfolio Tastings

Informative, fun and educational tasting formats give producers and importers access to key on- and off-premise accounts and specific consumer demographics when executed by a noted journalist and educator as a value-added presentation.

Copy Optimization for Marketing, Public Relations and Sales Materials

Copy Optimization for Marketing, Public Relations and Sales Materials

Zimmerman’s creative use of trends and data helps publicists and marketing execs communicate key messages and points of brand distinction, look beyond traditional wine media, provide ideas for RFPs for new brands and get the message out to operators.

For more information on event formats and services for the event planners and DMCs; wine tourism and visitors associations; publicists; and brands and marketing executives; as well as themed wine events for bankers, attorneys and general information and pricing please click the appropriate link.



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About

Liza Zimmerman

Biography

Liza Zimmerman has been writing, educating and consulting about wine, cocktails and food for more than two decades. She has also worked almost every angle of the wine and food business: from server and consultant to positions in distribution, education and sales. Her approach to wine education, coverage and training is savvy, down to earth and unpretentious.

Zimmerman is one of a very limited number of career magazine editors in the education field.

She focuses on demystifying wine and transforming it into a daily joy and tool for business and networking for her clients and readers. She has visited all the world’s major wine growing and spirits producing regions—50 plus countries and counting—is one of several hundred people in the U.S. to hold the Diploma of Wine & Spirits (D.W.S.), the three-year program that is the precursor to the Master of Wine.

Partial Client List

  • Colangelo PR
  • Cornell University
  • Culinary Institute of America St. Helena
  • Deloitte
  • DFV Wines
  • Don Sebastiani & Sons
  • Folio Fine Wine Partners
  • Genentech
  • IBM
  • Jordan Winery and Vineyards
  • J. Lohr Vineyards
  • Manhattan Cocktail Classic
  • National Restaurant Association
  • Pernod Ricard USA
  • Purple Wine & Spirits Co.
  • Sonoma State University Wine Business Institute
  • Terlato Wines International
  • The Luxury Marketing Council of San Francisco
  • Trinchero Family Estates
  • Unisys
  • Wine & Spirit Education Trust

Hot off the press

Editorial Coverage

Selling Wine in Las Vegas

Selling Wine in Las Vegas

In its slightly more than 100-year history, Las Vegas has never resembled any other wine market. Its sales dynamics are dominated by one wholesaler, with a sprinkling of smaller players….

How Planners Can Create Dynamic Wine Events

How Planners Can Create Dynamic Wine Events

Wine events of all kinds have been steadily growing in popularity during the last decade. Since California is indisputably the most renowned wine-producing region in the United States..

Mother Knows Best

Mother Knows Best

I am the child of a stubborn wonam, and like mother, like daughter. We’re both hardheaded, but she has nevertheless managed to pass down some wisdom over the years. A few of her…

Perfume-Inspired Drinks

Bartenders Only: This is the Bar Where Your Favorite Perfume and Cocktail Meet

That’s the top question asked by Arnd Henning Heissen, bar manager of the new bar, Fragrances, in the Ritz Carlton in Berlin, Germany. Fragrances’ conceit sounds like an impossible gimmick…

So Many Wines and Great Pairings

So Many Wines and Great Pairings

There is always a wine that is going to make a dish sing. And it does not always follow the rule of “What grows together goes together”…

An Inside Look at Roman Wine Bars

An Inside Look at Roman Wine Bars

For an insular and largely domestically focused wine market such as Italy, Rome has long offered wine lovers a great and diverse wine market…

NY 7 Wonders of the World

NY 7 Wonders of the World

It’s a New York take on manifest destiny: the image of the IRT 7 train, spreading out across the wilds of Queens, like a wagon trail rolliing west across the Great Plains. A quarter of a million immigrants…

Food Discoveries in SF's Mission District

Best Eats in SF's Mission District

What used to be a low-key Mexican neighborhood in San Francisco, the Mission District, has undergone a culinary explosion. From innovative Italian to pristine fresh bread…

Blogs

DrinkUpNy

National Italian Wine

Public Relations and Marketing Writing Samples

Jordan Winery Newsletter Sample

Jordan Winery Newsletter Sample

The wine industry is filled with passionate people. You have to have a passion for wine and hospitality to succeed as a winery…

Cruz Tequila Sell Sheet

Cruz Tequila Sell Sheet

Cruz Tequila is made from only estate-grown agave from the highlands of the prestigious Los Altos region of Jalisco, Mexico. Cruz’s estate is at one of the highest elevations in Los…

Business of Wine Restaurant Chapter

Business of Wine Zimmerman Rest...

The on-promise trade has always been a key sector for the wine industry. From huge chains with hundreds of units that sell a handful of wines in massive quantities to white-table cloth…

Individual Brand Marketing

Stefan Pickerel was raised by a father in the New York restaurant business who impressed him with flambés in his childhood on the weekends…

Brassica Wine Program Release

Brassica Restaurant Wine Progr...

November 4, 2011- San Francisco – Cindy Pawlcyn and managing partner Sean Knight have launched Brassica Mediterranean Kitchen & Wine Bar to a tremendous reception and Napa…

Terlato Berlucchi Release

Berlucchi Release from Terlato

The wine market these days is overflowing with bubbles: thank goodness! However, how do you…

Don Sebastiani & Sons' New Brand Release

Beam Sauvignon Blanc Tasting Note

Fourth-Generation Sonoma vintners Don Sebastiani & Sons unveiled today a new Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon. Queens Peak is a tribute to the rugged Sonoma County landmark…

Ambrosia (1-800 Flowers-owned) Wine Club

Ambrosia (800 Flowers-owned wi...

This winery is managed by the four Buoncristiani brothers who were raised in Napa and in the business. The wine is the winery’s house red blend. The name is short for “Ol’Pa’s Claret,” in honor of their winemaking predecessors…

Coverage

A Drink with Liza Zimmerman

A Drink With Liza Zimmerman

I adore rowdy rosés from Italy, Spain’s Navarra region and Bordeaux in the summer. Austrian Grüner Veltliner and sauvignon blanc from practically anywhere are divine, as …

Imbibe Summer Wines Coverage

Imbibe Summer Wines Coverage

Summer wine-tasting trips can be memorable, but not always in a good way. Sometimes a spontaneous jaunt to wine country to take advantage of a warm-weather weekend can feel like…

Hutch Premier Chefs Dinner

Hutch Premier Chefs Dinner

SEATTLE — May 22, 2006 — No longer content toiling behind the scenes, members of the Premier Chefs Advisory Board took center stage to raise more than $308,000 for the Fred Hutchinson…


National Television Appearances

Great Value Wines Under $10

Great Value Wines Under $10

Wines for Summer Entertaining

Wines for Summer Entertaining

I just did a segment on a local ABC channel View from the Bay with home décor diva Lisa Quinn. We covered some of the basics of home entertaining on a reasonable budget. In having to pack …

Finding Value Wines at Retail

Finding Value Wines at Retail

Cork vs. Screwcaps

Cork vs. Screwcaps

Wine Cocktails

Wine Cocktails

Audio

Dining Around: Sicily and Chicago

Dining Around

Listen to 910.KKSF’s Dining Around hosted by Gene Burns with special guest Liza Zimmerman, who talks about her trips to Sicily and Chicago.

Dining Around: Turkey

Dining Around: Turkey

Listen to 910.KKSF’s Dining Around hosted by Joel Riddell with special guest Liza Zimmerman, who shares her culinary experiences in Turkey.

Events

Events

Liza the Wine Chick offers everything from interactive wine and food pairing sessions, insight on wine for business etiquette and high-energy, competitive wine competitions (based on Iron Chef). As an educator and consultant, she excels at new wine and spirits formats that bring value to consumers, restaurants, wine and spirits marketers, event planners and DMCs.